In Thrust we Trust
by hddn7
Summary: See what happens when three teens of our world land in the world of cars. Or maybe should I say they literally crashed there? How bad a young pilot, a gamer boy and a cute smart girl will manage to mess up the storyline? The story takes place two month before the beginning of the World Grand Prix.
1. Nightmare before crash

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Ok, let's get started. This is my very first story and my English is not that good so I'm definitely going to mess up something, hopefully you'll still get it but if you report my mistakes I'll may be able to improve. Thank you for reading this thing and if you don't mind to waste some time leave a review, they're always appreciated.

 **Nightmare before crash**

It was just another take-off, the weather was perfect.

Not too hot but neither cold, there wasn't any turbulence, not a gust of wind nor a cloud in the sky. I had been flying for just a couple of minutes when the plane began to pitch down slightly, only when I tried to correct it I realized that all the controls and avionics were missing. In front of me there was now only a plain metal panel but the thing that truly freaked me out was that I couldn't control the airplane anymore. I started to feel something like panic and even though I was still trying with my cold logic to find a way to take back the control of the plane I soon realized that it was impossible. I couldn't do anything but watch the ground getting closer and closer as the plane entered in an uncontrolled nosedive. I was going to die.

Suddenly I started to hear an alarm far away, hidden by the engine roar. The alarm was getting louder and louder as if it was getting closer with the ground. When there were only few feet left to the crash the alarm became deafening and I sat up quickly. Stunned I grabbed my phone stopping the annoying noise. For a good couple of minutes I stood still thinking about the nightmare I just had. That was pretty weird. I hardly ever remembered my dreams, and the one I had just experienced was a vivid and yet so absurd one.

With a sigh I got up stretching and I started to get ready for school. I picked a dark grey t-shirt with the Messerschmitt logo, a black hoodie and a pair of military green cargo trousers. I wasn't one who followed trends and neither I was doing anything to look attractive like my sister. I was more the kind of person who cared about efficiency and my look said it all, tactical, cozy and sturdy, without unnecessary frills.

After I washed my face and brushed my teeth I took a look at the mirror over the sink. Two green eyes were looking back at me, they weren't bright green like my brother's ones or light green like my mother but a duller green, almost of the same color as my trousers. My skin was really pale making my dark brown hairs look even darker, they were really short and spiky as usual. I snorted and proceeded to try to flatten them a little with my hands, I would have to go to cut them soon. With my slanting eyes, my small pointed nose and my thin lips I managed to look many years younger even without my petite size.

I got out the bathroom and after a quick breakfast I putted on my black combat boots and grabbed my camouflage tactical backpack. After one last look to the clock I putted on my headphones and got out on the road listening to 'Highway to the Danger zone'.

My breath was coming out in small white puffs in the cold morning air. It was the twenty seventh of October and there were about four degrees Celsius, I couldn't keep myself from enjoying the fresh and clean air, I was happy to live up in mountains. I walked down the road to the bus stop in less than ten minutes then I stopped a few steps away from the stop where there were two old ladies chatting. I really cared about my personal space. Maybe too much. The bus arrived fifteen minutes later and I sat near the back end, putting my backpack on the free seat next to me. It wasn't like there weren't spare seats, the bus was almost empty as usual. I spent the trip deep in my thoughts while watching the landscape passing by through the window, always keeping an eye on the people who were getting in and off the bus. After a bit more than an hour I finally reached my destination. I walked fast to the school arriving just in time and went sitting at my desk.

My desk mate was checking his phone and the rest of my classmates were either chatting with each other or minding their own business. Soon our old math teacher entered in the classroom. After five hours of lessons and being told off multiple times about how we weren't taking our fourth year in high school enough seriously I was finally allowed to go home. I didn't have any specific program for that afternoon so I spent it on my flight simulator, checking once a while the METAR* and TAF* of the nearest airport, looking forward for the flight that I had scheduled for the next day.

Unfortunately, at five my mother arrived home with my brother who decided to make a show of all his maturity keeping the doorbell pushed for almost two minutes. As the afternoon became evening I rechecked my plans and route for the upcoming flight with my mother and brother arguing in the background. Same as always. A few hours later arrived also my father with my sister, now the shouting competition had three participants, in the meantime my dear little sister started to mess up with her nails varnishes filling the air with a terrible smell. Around eight my mother finally managed to put together something like a dinner.

My sister went to bed at half past nine as usual, she was thirteen and she attended the middle school. I saw her as a pretty smart and resourceful person although that was the only thing we had in common. Our tastes were almost the opposite. She had tanned skin, big brown eyes and long dark brown hairs that arrived at her butt that she spent hours to straighten every morning although they were already straight, like me she was pretty tiny.

My brother was apparently done arguing with my parents, who seemed to be able to keep their competition going pretty well even without him, and he went to take a shower. My brother was fifteen and he was almost as tall as me although maybe a bit more muscular. He had short light brown hair and green eyes, his lips and eyebrows were pretty thick and his face looked more mature making him look his age even if he was only one and sixty meters tall. Although we had some tastes in common I didn't thought much of his intelligence at that point, maybe because his biggest achievement seemed to be playing with his computer the whole day every day, constantly requesting my assistance because he didn't want to actually learn anything useful about computers, he was barely able to start his games on his own. His laziness was also the main reason behind our parents' arguments.

I needed a shower too and knowing that my brother could be extremely slow I decided to wait watching a movie. I was looking around the web without any idea until a picture from Cars caught my eye, when I was a child Cars was my favorite film, so I decided to give it a try. The movie ended at eleven o'clock and my brother was finally finished with his shower. After I got cleaned up and ready for sleep I decided to watch another movie, I wasn't used to go to bed that early. I opted for Cars 2 as I had never watched it before. At one am I turned off my laptop, got to bed and relaxed thinking about the movies I had just watched, it didn't take long for me to fall asleep.

That morning I woke up early, got dressed and had breakfast but then my mother came to me with some bad news: my siblings were going to have to come fly with me. How to totally screw up a beautiful day. The bright side was that my parents didn't trust them to stay at home alone as well as taking the bus so our father would take us there by car. My sister spent the whole trip playing with her phone while my brother was staring out of the window looking pretty upset. I thought I had many more reasons than him to be upset but I kept quite as usual focusing on my music.

Once our father dropped us at the airfield I first got to a computer to check the weather once more waving at one instructor on my way out then me and my brothers reached the fuel pump where another flight instructor was waiting for us with a student in his thirty in front of a white Cirrus SR20. I planned to do two wide circles of the area that would have last about thirty minutes each. After thanking the instructor and the student for filling up the aircraft they leaved it to me, I proceeded with the walk around and then I sat on the front left seat.

My sister started begging me to leave her on the ground but I coldly told her to get her ass on the aircraft and so she sat pale and quiet on the back with my brother who still looked upset. Really... if a pilot would have asked me to go fly with him before I started studying for the PPL* I would have been the happiest person on earth, they were making a tragedy for less than an hour of flight. Aviation had been my passion since I stepped on an aircraft for the first time, nothing was better than flying. Unfortunately no one in my family was interested in it so I had to work very hard and to be extremely persuasive to convince my mother to sign me up for the PPL when I was sixteen. Less than six months later I got my license and when my mother started seeing my 'childish' passion as a career opportunity I could finally fly whenever I wanted although no more than ten hours a month due to economic reasons.

After I was finished with my prestart-up checklist and I got the engine running I proceeded with the first radio call. "I-SRFG taxing to holding point 02". Nobody answered, it seemed there was no one on the tower or nearby. I was halfway through the taxiway when my siblings started arguing and insulting each other. It took me some well-placed threats to make them shut up without unplugging their microphones. "I-SRFG line up and take-off runway 02" I announced after the last checks. Then I proceeded with the lining up and in a few seconds we were airborne. I levelled at 5000 feet and I made a right turn, heading east to start my route.

Everything seemed to be fine, my brothers were quiet and it was a nice day for flying. We completed one of the two circles and after passing on the airfield we were heading east again. Suddenly a wall of clouds appeared directly in front of our nose. I didn't have time to think about anything before we were in it. I immediately stopped looking outside and shifted my sight on the PFD and MFD* turning on the pitot heat*. I had to get out the clouds quickly, I hadn't get my instrumental rating yet. Keeping my cold temper I pushed the cloche forward while pulling out the throttle trying to reach a lower altitude than the clouds base.

Thought on one side I was wondering how such a massive cloud could have appeared right in front of us in just a couple of seconds my cold, logical, determined mind was heavily focused on getting out the potentially dangerous situation we were in. I wasn't scared at all, panic is never useful. I kept losing altitude ignoring my siblings' questions as they seemed to start noticing the changes in my flight path, watching the altimeter showing lower altitudes. We were right below 4000 feet when after taking a look outside I noticed that the grey clouds were starting to thin out. Feeling relieved I kept watching out 'till I saw more grey appearing below the clouds.

I quickly pulled the cloche to me feeling the sudden impact of the main landing gear on the asphalt. Something had just been badly smashed. I quickly turned off the magnets managing to stop the propeller right before the front wheel hit the ground and got smashed by the force of the impact. At least I managed to avoid to tip us over. We were keeping to slide on the asphalt, I could hear my siblings screaming in the background, the com was no longer functional. Suddenly I saw a huge pile of scraps getting closer and closer right in front of us. I barely managed to realize we were surely going to hit it pretty fast before passing out.

*METAR stands for Meteorological Aerodrome Report and is a format for reporting weather information. Raw MTARs are standardized by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) which allows them to be understandable almost everywhere in the world.

*TAF stands for Terminal Aerodrome Forecast and they're similar to METARs in their format, but while a METAR is used to see real time weather TAFs are more like weather's forecasts.

*PPL stands for Private Pilot Licence.

*PFD stands for Primary Flight Display and MFD stands for Multi-Function Display. They are two screens that integrate many avionics instruments in glass cockpit configurations.

*The pitot tube is a pressure measurement instrument that like in our Cirrus and in many other airplanes is situated under the left wing, it's very important because it gives the pilot some essential flight information like the wind speed. Pitot heat avoids ice formations in the pitot tube.


	2. Objective: survive

**Disclaimer** : I don't own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Hallo again and thank you for keeping reading this thing. Here's the next chapter, enjoy!

 **Objective: survive**

Avgas, I could smell avgas. That was the first thing to be registered in my clouded mind. Groaning I opened my eyes and once my view was clear I found myself staring at the shattered windshield of the SR20. Everything came back to my mind as the gravity of the situation fully hit me. I quickly unbuckled my seatbelt and I noticed that the right door was open. There was no sign of my siblings. I climbed out the wreck and I checked myself for injuries.

Luckily apart of a huge bump on the left side of my head I was pretty fine. That was not the case of our poor Cirrus that now looked only slightly like an airplane. I wondered if our ELT* was transmitting. I decided to go to find my siblings, my mobile didn't want to start and we needed help. The place where we ended up looked like some kind of abandoned junk yard, there were many piles of scraps on the concrete forecourt where I was standing. There were also two big old buildings.

I didn't know where to start so I decided to go for the right one. The big sliding doors were half open and I had no problems to slip in. Inside it was almost empty, dirty and pretty dark, the only light came from the gap between the doors, at the other side of the building there was a strange concrete ramp, pretty wide and equipped with a rusty railing, it seemed to take to an upper floor. It was too dark to explore it any further safely and I was getting back to the doors when I heard a noise behind my back. I quickly hided myself behind an empty case before taking a look in the direction where the sound came from.

I could see a dark shadow holding small light coming down from the ramp and when the sunlight started to light it up I was finally able to recognize the one who was holding the light.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I asked my sister who was now looking back at me, her expression seemed almost... Excited?

Mary ran to me in the sunlight turning off the flash of her mobile.

"You told us to go away and so we went exploring" She answered as if it was obvious.

"I didn't tell you to go anywhere" I replied annoyed.

"Yeah you did! You told us to piss off when we tried to wake you up after the crash!" I sighed. I didn't remember anything about that, I hoped that was the only thing I had forgotten.

"So, can you fix the plane? Do we have to wait for someone to come and fix it? While we were exploring we found a lot of really weird things! You really should come and check them out! Gabriel said that..."

"You really can't understand when it's the right moment to shut up, can you? The plane is totally wrecked. We just crashed in the middle of nowhere and none of you brainy kids tried to use your mobile phones to call for help before totally drain their battery?" Speaking with such a talkative person like my sister was pretty stressful, you always had to remember to make very specific questions to avoid shitloads of useless details.

"We tried but there's no signal" She replied in an offended tone.

"And anyway it's your fault if we crashed!" She muttered angrily.

Her last statement gave me something to think about. Yes, we crashed, we did hit the ground. But that didn't make any sense, we were flying in a definitely flat area when we got into the clouds. We were more than a hundred miles away from the nearest mountains, the ones where we lived, and even the place where we crashed was flat. So, having my altimeter set on the QNH with ground at 100 feet, how did we managed to drop almost 4000 feet in less than one minute?

"Go upstairs and call Gabriel we're gonna wait here for rescue. The emergency transmitter should have been activated by the crash, it shouldn't take long for them to get here" I told her, I was going to think about it later.

She was starting to head back to the ramp when we heard an explosion. I froze looking at the doors.

"Call him, the meeting point will be the crash site. I want you there in five minutes" I told my sister who stopped starring at the doors.

"Ok" She said quickly running to the ramp, far from the explosion.

I got out from the building and stealthy made my way toward the black smoke pillar.

As I soon discovered it was our Cirrus to explode. The midday sun must have caused some sparks. Without anything useful to extinguish the fire with I let it burn covering my nose and mouth with the sleeve of my hoodie and stepping back to a safe distance. A couple of minutes later my siblings joined me and together we kept starring to the burning wreckage that were once a great Cirrus SR20. RIP my friend, you won't be forgotten.

"Let's go back inside" I told them spotting some dark and bad looking clouds approaching at the horizon.

We got back in the right building, the doors of the left one were closed, my siblings tried to convince me to go upstairs with them where they told me there were some offices with old strange computers and a lot of waste paper. I refused and I let them go by themselves, I had to wait for the rescue. Two hours passed while the clouds gifted us with a short heavy rain. Then all was silent, with the exception of the occasional noise from upstairs.

Finally I started hearing the unmistakable noise of the rotor of a helicopter approaching. I looked out the doors. Two helicopters, I thought as I saw two black spots in the sky getting closer.

Soon they were close enough for me to distinguish their white and red paint jobs. I decided to let them land before getting any closer, right when they were starting their descend to land in the yard I noticed something weird. I've always been a very logical person so it took me a while to fully elaborate what my eyes were sending to my brain. The helicopters had eyes. They looked a bit darkened as if they were wearing a dark visor but... they had eyes... and... and mouths... they were speaking to each other... in English... WTF?! Where the fuck did we got to?! I quietly hided myself in the shadows silently wondering if I was insane, I signalled to my siblings who were starting to walk down the ramp to get back up, they gave me a confused look and I growled slightly to them when they didn't move enough quickly.

Looking back outside I noticed that the helicopters were rolling around and that a yellow forklift had come out of the bigger one, I wasn't an expert of helicopters and I didn't know absolutely anything about forklifts but I thought I knew the model of the smaller one... it looked like an Aérospatiale SA 365. Suddenly I heard a surprised and horrified exclamation coming from our crash site. Oops. If my theory was correct our Cirrus had to be a pretty gruesome sight for them. I kept watching as the two helicopters rushed to the forklift. For about an hour they roamed around speaking to each other and at the radio. I was too far to hear what they were talking about and I really needed some information. I sneaked closer hiding myself among the scraps. English wasn't a problem for me, I could speak and understand it pretty well. So I crouched in an old refrigerator and I listened. The helicopters were getting ready to give someone a debrief about their mission, the wreckages of the Cirrus were vanished and the forklift was getting back on the bigger helicopter who was apparently a girl. Soon the two helicopters took off leaving behind them some wake turbulence and the echo of their rotors. For a couple of minutes I just absently starred at the horizon.

At least now we knew we were in the US and that it was the seventh of April. Apparently somehow we ended up in a world like the one of the movie Cars... And now what? We needed to survive and to do that I needed to stay focused on the objective. Survive. I had to inform my siblings about the situation. I sighed quietly, that was going to be painful.

I got back to the building and I started to walk up the ramp. I didn't have any light so I kept a hand on the railing and step by step I finally reached the top without tripping and falling to my death. Once I was on the top I was surprised to find out that I could see once more. Apparently there was a hole in the roof somewhere. I kept walking down the hallway following the light until I reached an open door.

I entered in the room spotting my siblings. My sister was in front of an old, dirty, cracked mirror that she apparently tried to clean up using some tissues that were now lying on the floor near her, she was holding a pair of tweezers and adjusting her eyebrows. I snorted and took a look to my brother who was lying on an old filthy carpet and playing with his phone, apparently he still didn't realize that saving battery is a pretty good idea in this kind of situation. I scraped one of my boots on the ground to get their attention.

"Do you have any idea of where we are?" I asked them carefully observing their reactions.

"In an abandoned building?" Tried my brother.

"Wow you have eyes! The geographic location Gabriel not the building. Didn't some of you noticed that we aren't where we are supposed to be?"

"Of course we aren't you made us crash!" He replied offended.

"If it was only because of the crash we would have got back home with the helicopters. No Gabriel it's not because of the crash if we aren't where we are supposed to be, I have no idea of how it could happen but we are in the US now" I kept a careful eye on them as they were thinking about the information I just gave them. My sister looked surprised and scared. She didn't know how or what was happening but she trusted me.

"Hahaha! Are you kidding me?! Do you really think I could believe that we have just been teleported from Italy to America!?" With my brother it wasn't that easy.

"I wish it was that simple dear brother. That's not our America, the one we know, that's not our world at all" I told him coldly.

"Have you heard the helicopters?" I asked them.

"Yeah, why you told us to go back upstairs? Weren't they supposed to rescue us?" Asked my sister looking confused.

"Those helicopters were indeed supposed to help an aircraft in trouble. An aircraft. Not humans. It looks like we are in a world of vehicles now. Do you remember the film Cars?"

I took a moment to appreciate the stunned expressions on my siblings faces.

"I-it can't be... It's like in the pictures!" Said my brother.

"What pictures?" I asked.

My sister got up from the floor where she was sitting shaking the dust off her leggings and she reached the desk that was in the middle of the room. Now I noticed that on the old desk there were some old papers as well as a weird looking old computer. Mary looked through the papers picking up two pictures and showing them to me.

"We thought it was some kind of joke" She told me. The pictures were old and faded but the subjects were still recognizable as cars. Cars with eyes and mouths.

"I wanna go home..." Mary cried quietly.

"If we start acting as cry-babies we are fucked" I informed her coldly.

My brother still looked a bit stunned, apparently he was still trying to keep up with our situation. My sister was looking at me with teary eyes but she seemed also determined, waiting for orders. Good little sister.

"First things first, we have to search the area. We need food and water to survive"

"But how can we find food and water in a world of cars?" Asked Gabriel who finally managed to snap out his daydream.

"Even if there is no human life in this world at the edge of the yard I saw some bushes and if there are plants there is food. For the water part there shouldn't be any problem, did you forgot about the rain we saw a few hours ago?"

"Hum, ok. Where should we start?" Asked Gabriel.

"Gabriel, you' are going out of the yard and you'll follow the edge of the asphalt from the outside. You have to look for anything edible or drinkable. Fruits, a river, a lake. But we have to avoid any contact with vehicles. If you notice something strange or spot someone hide yourself and come back. Just one more thing, hurry up, we don't have much time left before sunset" While my brother was walking out of the room I turned to my sister.

"You are going to search inside the yard. Look for anything that you think could be useful, included water tanks. It won't be healthy but we don't really have a choice"

"And what you're gonna do?" She asked me before leaving the room.

"I'll stay here, I'll try to make this place habitable. This night is going to be cold, we'll need a fire" I told her while starting to rummage in a drawer of the desk.

Almost three hours later the sky turned orange and pink as the sun began to set, I managed to find an old matchbox proceeding to set on fire some old smashed wooden crates right under the hole on the roof, I also found some old dirty blankets and carpets that we could use for sleeping.

My brother came back with his pockets full of berries but without water. He started poking the fire with a stick while we were waiting for our sister. Mary arrived a few minutes later dragging a metal sheet with some useless wreckage and a pot full of water that she found in an old cistern on it. We put the water to boil and waited while eating the berries as the sky got darker. After our 'dinner' me and Gabriel were lying on the carpets, wrapped in the blankets and ready to sleep. My sister kept complaining about the dirt for a full hour before giving up to the cold wrapping herself in her dirty blankets and falling asleep.

I starred at the fire for almost two hours before getting up with a sigh. My siblings were both sleeping. I putted another piece of wood in the fire and I ensured that the metal sheets we used to keep it contained were still there before looking out to the hole on the roof. I took a moment for starring at the stars before climbing up on the high roof of the building and sitting near the hole. I spent almost an hour in that position enjoying the silence and the cold air. Suddenly I noticed the unmistakable lights of an airplane. I felt a heavy weight setting on my chest as I thought about all the time I was going to have to stay on the ground before I would be able to fly again. I was going to be stuck on the ground until we managed to get back home. Maybe... somehow. I let out a sigh and got back in the room with my siblings, struggling to keep my eyes off the sky, the weight I felt on my chest wasn't going to vanish until I managed to get back in the sky. I just had to get used to it.

The next morning I got up early and proceeded to wake up my siblings. Once my brother was done with complaining and insult me I putted them to work. For almost a week we managed to survive without meeting anyone. My sister was also able to find a way to wash our clothes while we were taking a bath using the water of one of the cisterns she found. Not the helicopters nor anyone else was spotted in the area.

Then, one morning everything changed. The night before that day everything appeared normal, my brother was complaining about the pain in his limbs but I didn't care. It was normal for him, he started complaining from the first day about the routine I planned for us. But I was two years older than him and four years older than my sister so I was in command. Anyway that night I felt difficult falling asleep and, as usual, I spent most of it on the roof. So, that morning I slept over a little and it took me some time to wake up enough to focus on the screams.

*ELT stands for Emergency Locator Transmitter and they are usually activated automatically by a violent shock.


	3. New mission

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Hello, here's chapter 3. I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who's still reading this story in particular to those who reviewed/followed/favourited it. I hope it won't disappoint you.

 **New mission**

My brothers were yelling at each other.

I sighed opening my eyes, ready to deal with another argument.

I got up quickly grabbing my sister and dragging her with me behind the desk. In front of us there was what seemed to be a dark orange Dodge Challenger SRT8 with two black racing stripes.

The Dodge had wide open green eyes and he looked like he was having a panic attack.

"Where is Gabriel?" I asked to my sister, my voice filled with urgency. He wasn't anywhere to be seen. But we had been found, we had to leave.

My sister was keeping to stare at the Dodge looking pretty shocked then she raised an arm and slowly pointed at the car without saying a word.

"Where is our brother?" I coldly asked to the car.

"I-I a-a-am... I am... I mean... It's me!" He stuttered whit my brother's voice.

"What the fuck happened to you?!" I asked in disbelief.

"I-I don't know... When I got to sleep I was… Normal, but now... I am a car..."

"To be more specific you are a Dodge Challenger SRT8" I informed him.

Then I started to walk around him, a thousand of questions and a plan were taking shape in my mind.

"I have no idea of how this could have happened and at this point I'm not even that surprised, but the sooner you'll accept it, the better chance we'll have to get through this in one piece... Now follow me" I told him while walking to the door.

Gabriel took some minutes to understand how to start his engine that came to life with a powerful roar. Once he managed to keep his RPM under control and to engage the first gear, roll forward and then brake he slowly started to follow me down the ramp with Mary behind him. We reached the forecourt where after making him park in the centre I started to give him some driving lessons. All my knowledge came from the Internet and some video games. I wasn't eighteen yet so I didn't have a driving license. But it seemed that learning to drive was instinctive for a car.

Less than three hours later my brother was speeding through the scrap yard at almost 200 km/h. Mary was giving him a pretty worried look and for once she had a point. We were all alone in a desert scrap yard, if he crashed we wouldn't have been able to help him. So I called him back and after a vivid description of what could have happened if he crashed at that speed I convinced him to slow down.

"Can you open your doors?" I asked hopeful.

He focused on them and after a few seconds he managed to open his left door and nodded.

"I think that now it's the right moment to leave this scrap yard and explore the area" I told them pointing at Gabriel's open door.

"How much fuel you have left?"

"Hum... I've still got about three quarters" He answered.

"Good. Mary pack your things. We're leaving and I don't know if or when we'll be back" I told her as she was already running in the building.

Less than thirty minutes later we were sitting inside our brother. I was on the left seat and Mary on the right one. Inside it was completely dark, apparently the light couldn't get through the windows so we had no idea of what was going on outside. I told my brother to keep us updated so that I could explain him some basic rules of the road.

At first we could only hear the roar of his engine and the noise of his wheels on the bumpy road but then we started to hear more sounds, voices, engines. Gabriel told us that we were in a little town. He also told us that he needed to refuel but he hadn't got any money to pay for it. I just told him to park near a pump and let me take care of the rest. It was a trick that I had learned back in the scrap yard while I was trying to check if there was some fuel left in one of the old pumps back there. Fortunately neither those looked too new and in a few minutes the fuel was running in my brother's tank. I closed the door quickly and I waited for him to be finished.

While I was waiting I focused on my brother's radio. They were speaking about the World Grand Prix. I asked him to turn up the volume and I discovered that the first race was going to take place in Japan in less then two months. That was something I would have liked to see. I thought back to the plot of the movie Cars 2, what were trying to do the lemons. I couldn't stand people who took pleasure in hurting others. I thought of all the people that were hurt by the lemons, especially those who were actually killed by them. The agents Leland Turbo and Rod Torque Redline. They payed with their lives to solve a case and find an answer that I already knew. I had no idea of how to get on the oil rigs. But maybe Redline... Maybe my propose could have been more than just survive.

I rubbed my chest with a grimace. I needed to fly. All that time on the ground was making me feel unstable, it was a feeling I knew too well even if almost a year was passed from the last time I felt it. I needed a new objective to focus on in order to avoid to go completely insane.

First I had to get to Japan. To travel to Japan I needed money. My dear little brother was going to find a job. I had to be very convincing and a bit threatening but I managed to get my brothers aware of our upcoming trip without scaring them with my true propose. Fortunately after spending a few hours roaming around the city my brother managed to get a job in a classical music shop. We had to come up with some kind of explanation because even if he was now a car he still looked a bit too young to work and live on his own but we managed to convince the owner, an old grey Ford Country Squire.

My brother managed to repeat with some mistakes and an Italian accent the lines that I was quietly whispering him, we told the owner that Gabriel who introduced himself as Mario was an Italian student who needed some money to proceed with his trip around the world. For more than six weeks my brother worked full time at the shop while me and Mary were waiting in an abandoned garage not far from the city. I also managed to steal a tablet so I could stay informed on the price of the plane's tickets to Tokyo.

When we finally reached the right amount of money for the flight and the hotel we drove to the nearest international airport and we purchased a last-minute ticket for a flight that was going to leave in a couple of hours. My brother started to roam around the shops giving some wishful looks at some candies that I prohibited him to purchase.

Thirty minutes before the departure I guided him to the right gate and ten minutes later we were on the plane. I really fucking wanted to open that goddammit door and watch the take-off. Fortunately I managed to enjoy the filling anyway and the suffocating strict on my chest was slightly released. I sighed in relief and I relax against the seat enjoying the flight. Only when I felt the aircraft getting ready to land I realized I had fallen asleep. For the first time in almost two months I managed to have a good nap without any nightmare.

After the landing I helped my brother to get to our cheap hotel without getting lost in the huge city. As soon as he closed our room's door I opened his door and got out stretching. My sister rushed to the bathroom. Gabriel turned on the TV and I looked out of a gap between the curtains at the shining city below, it was only half past six but my brother made clear that he wasn't going anywhere at least until the next day.

My sister got out from the bathroom and came to me.

"So, what we're gonna do now?" She asked.

"We're safe now, no one is going to spot us here" I told her.

"Why you don't want to tell us? We were hiding well back in America and you never do something without a reason! Is it because of the race we heard about at the radio? Why are we in Japan Chris?" I sighed, even my brother wasn't paying attention at the television anymore.

"No, we are not here because of the World Grand Prix but for something closely linked to that" I told them before turning back to stare out of the window, ending our conversation.

My sister gave me an annoyed look and she proceeded to drop herself on the large, flat pillow that was in the middle of the room complaining about all the time she had to stay cramped inside our brother and how her limbs were now aching, she pulled off her white All-stars throwing them across the room. My brother got closer to the pillow ready to tell her to piss off but I glared at him and he turned back to the TV with a snort.

I spent almost four hours watching down at Tokyo's traffic as the sun set with the Japanese voices coming from the TV in the background. When the sky got dark I decided to go to sleep and turning away from the window I noticed that both of my brothers were already fast asleep. I turned off the TV and realizing that my sister was somehow occupying the whole pillow I laid on the floor, after a few minutes I was sleeping too.

That morning I was the first to wake up and after I opened my eyes I stood up quickly, my heart racing. On the blue pillow in the centre of the room there was a car that I didn't recognize. It looked like a 2010 Alfa Romeo Giulietta, it was white with some violet thin lines and stylized flowers around it's sides and violet rear view mirrors.

I stood still for a couple of seconds before a possible explanation came to my mind. Getting ready for the storm that I was about to start I picked up one of my sister's shoes from the floor and threw it at the Alfa. The shoe hit it on its roof before falling back to the ground and my sister woke up immediately. She looked around with wide open brown eyes before looking back at me and Gabriel who was now awake and pretty stunned.

"I-it's happened... Didn't it? She asked in a trembling voice.

"It seems so. Congratulations, you are now an Alfa Romeo Giulietta" I informed her.

After that we managed to find a desert parking lot where she could learn to drive without killing someone or herself in the process I left her to my brother deciding to take advantage to the lack of cars and explore the abandoned buildings that were situated on the right side of the parking lot. I managed to climb up to a half-opened window and using the light of my stolen tablet I took a look of the room. Soon I found some switches and after some seconds of hesitation I turned on the lights. The room where I was standing was pretty big and empty apart from some old boxes and crates.

I searched every corner of the room for anything interesting but without any luck until I opened a door on the left side of the room. I froze. There wasn't anything wrong with the room itself, it was very similar to the other. But my photographic memory was showing me a picture of an event I had witnessed even though it hadn't happened yet. Redline's death.

It happened... or it was about to happen there, right in that room. Quickly but quietly I rushed back to the window where I got in, I turned off the lights before climbing out and running to my brothers. I told them to stop driving around and I got into my brother. "I don't like this place... let's get back to the hotel" I ordered ignoring their complains.


	4. Planning

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Hello again, thank you for reading. Enjoy!

 **Planning**

Once we got back to the hotel I finally had time to think about what I had found.

Now I knew where they were going to take Redline. What I didn't know was how to get him out of there alive and possibly in one single piece. Just less than a week was left before the World Grand Prix, I really needed to come up with something quickly. I looked at my siblings, Mary was admiring her new body in a mirror and Gabriel was watching TV again.

I was in charge of planning but they were going to act. I looked down at my hands, maybe I was going to be turned into a car or something before the party... Nah, I couldn't count on something that didn't depend on me. I had to stay focused. I heard some muffed explosions and I briefly glanced at the TV, they were transmitting some fireworks' show. That's it!

What better way to get the attention of a group of cars away from Redline? Lots of fire and explosions! It took me a while to notice the worried look that my siblings were giving me and wipe the creepy grin off my usually emotionless face. I grabbed my tablet, proceeding to order from many different sites tons of illegal fireworks, firecrackers and everything that could produce a satisfying explosion. I spent almost all our money on my purchases, we were going to have to leave the hotel in a week, but, if everything gone as planned we would have to leave it anyway.

I spent the next two days in our room, planning. Once a while I would go with my siblings and hang out around the city, I mainly let them do whatever they wanted. My brother looked happy without questioning but Mary was giving me some suspicious looks. Anyway, they both understood that something was happening when we started to receive lots of packages from various carriers that were constantly knocking at our door. Obviously my brothers were the ones to pick the packages and pay even though I still refused to tell them what they contained.

When the piles of packages reached the ceiling I made my brother drive me back to the parking lot. We had only three days before the party, I had to hurry. I carefully studied the area where Redline was going to be placed, planning the positioning of the explosives. That evening I got my brothers hooked up to the luggage carts that we borrowed from the hotel and I made them take all the packages from our room to the abandoned building. I spent the whole night carefully placing and hiding them. At six I was finally satisfied with my job and I climbed out of the window.

I passed from satisfied to really annoyed in a couple of seconds. My brother, who was supposed to watch my back, was sleeping. I picked up a rock and I threw it hitting him on his right door and leaving a small dent. He woke up with a painful whine.

"Are you crazy?!" Gabriel asked me angrily.

"You were supposed to be my watch idiot"

"That fucking hurts!"

"Oh, poor little boy! You got hurt by a rock! Do you have any idea of how bad they were going to hurt us if they caught us?!" Ok, in that moment I was really tired, stressed and annoyed.

"I don't even know what are you doing with those packages! And neither who apparently wants us dead!"

I sighed tiredly. He had a point.

"When we'll be back at the hotel I will explain you everything, but now let's get away from here" I told him briefly getting on his left seat.

Gabriel revved his engine angrily before driving back to the hotel.

Once we were back in our room I found myself under the questioning looks of both my siblings.

"As you noticed I've been putting up something big. If everything goes as planned we will save someone engine from some bastards avoiding him a painful death" I told them quickly.

"But who would torture someone to death? From who are we rescuing that car?" Asked my sister, if she was still human she probably would have looked pretty pale.

"A criminal organization whose objective is to discredit alternative fuels" I explained.

"But how are we going to save him? Aren't we supposed to have guns or something to kill those criminals?" Asked my brother.

"Do I look the right size for a death match with a couple of cars? Even if we follow your idea we would be two and a half against too many" I pointed out, we weren't in a videogame, once you were dead you stayed dead here in real life.

"I've already thought about something to fix that problem" I added.

"Something with all the packages that we carried to that empty building?" Tried Mary.

"Yes"

"What's inside the packages?" Asked Gabriel.

"Lots of explosive things" I answered with a slight grin.

"Why are we using that building?" Asked my sister.

"Because there will be our car" I told her.

"But I still don't get it... How do you know all these things? Who are we going to save? Why?" Asked again Mary.

She looked half way between confused and scared.

"I thought you heard about that film that came out after Cars, Cars 2. I watched it so I know some of the upcoming events. The car that we are going to save is called Rod Torque Redline and he is an American spy. For the reason part, well, it may sound weird but I really haven't thought about it. Now, if you're done with your questions, and you are, I'm going to take a shower" After that I got in the bathroom closing the door behind me and leaving my siblings alone with their thoughts.

When I got out almost twenty minutes later they looked like they were just finished with another argument. Even if their bodies were changed apparently they still enjoyed irritating each other. We spent the rest of the day hanging around our room with no particular purpose. The day after I let them sleep almost until noon taking myself a moment to rest.

Only in the evening I decided to let them know about my plans for the upcoming day.

"I recommend you to go to bed early because tomorrow our mission will begin and I don't want to see anyone who's still sleepy or tired" I gave them a warning look before proceeding.

"Tomorrow morning you'll get up and get yourselves nice and ready for the party, at 1800 you'll leave me at the building without attracting any unwanted attention. After that you'll follow the route I'll show you on my tablet, you should end up exactly where the World Grand Prix opening party will take place passing from a service door. You'll have to go to the second floor, right in front of the bathrooms and maintain your position. Pretend to be chatting or waiting for someone, but whatever you decide you'll have to go directly there and stay there. Your objective will be a lemon, an orange Gremlin, do not speak with him, avoid eye contact and don't attract his attention. Once you'll see him enter it the bathroom Gabriel will send me a message with his tablet. Your next objective will be a rusty tow truck who will come out from the male bathroom, do you remember about Mater from Cars? Well, him. After that you're going to split. Mary, you're gonna enter in the female bathroom and if it's possible you'll try to overhear everything you can from the male bathroom. You will report to me every relevant information using your tablet. When we will complete the mission we'll send you a message with our new meeting point. Gabriel, you'll go out from where you came in and you will wait for my signal. When I'll tell you to you'll head to the building passing through that narrow road I showed you yesterday and then you'll pick me up. I should have managed to get the lemons away from Redline, a blue muscle car with blue eyes and black stripes on his sides, and cleared you a way out. Once you'll set him free try to get him follow you to the meeting point. If something goes wrong send a message. If someone misses a checkpoint we'll consider the mission as a failure and we'll meet here at the hotel to plan an eventual rescue. Is everything clear?".

I looked them carefully. My sister looked a bit too scared and my brother a bit too excited. Great... Let the game begin!


	5. Art is an explosion!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Hi everyone, thank you for reading and support me with your reviews! (Ninjagorulz: 'Grate' successfully replaced with 'Great', thanks for your help!)

 **Art is an explosion!**

That morning I helped my siblings to get cleaned up and ready for the party.

My sister wasn't that dirty but she insisted for a complete car wash. My brother was almost the opposite, he was all muddy and dusty, I had to rub very hard to remove all that junk off him. While I was helping him I noticed that the small dent that I gave him a few days before was almost vanished. That was interesting, apparently vehicles were able to 'heal' by themselves minor injuries exactly like humans.

I spent the rest of the time making them learn and repeat what they were supposed to do that night, one single tiny mistake could cost someone his life.

At 1800 my brother left me in the back of the building where I hid myself in a previously emptied dumpster. I waited.

At 1935 I received a message from Gabriel. Redline was in the bathroom.

At 1942 my sister texted me that Mater had left the bathroom and was driving away with a purple female car. I waited.

At 1957 I heard some voices, I took a look outside from my hideout using a hole. A group of eight lemons and a yellow tow truck was approaching the building.

The group was leaded by Zündapp and Redline was hooked to the tow truck, he looked unconscious. Soon after they were joined by a black truck who left with the tow truck right after unloading a pair of crates. The lemons forced open the old doors of the building and reached the room where I previously placed my GoPro now connected with my tablet.

It was my moment. While the lemons were setting up their camera and tying up Redline I reached my first position.

I waited until Redline was starting to wake up and then I lightened the fuse and ran to a cover, my hands pressed on my ears. A series of explosions broke the silence joining in a single deafening boom that broke all the windows in a blaze of colorful flames.

When it was over I ran as fast as I could to my second position, quickly lighting the fuse. After that I tinned in an old container and I checked my tablet quickly sending a message to my brother.

The second explosion made the first one look like a small firecracker.

All that explosive positioned in strategic places managed to make part of the roof collapse with a shower of rubble.

At that point the lemons and Zündapp were rushing away from the building fearing a third explosion, before leaving the professor ordered a lemon to take the camera but they couldn't do anything for Redline.

Gabriel chose that moment to arrive at our meeting point. I quickly got out of the container and I rushed to him, sitting on his left seat and urging him to go faster.

Pushing his powerful engine to its limit he quickly drove through the wreckage reaching Redline in less than two minutes. After some failed attempts he set him free and then he pretty much ordered him to follow. Redline probably was a bit dented and really confused but apparently he decided that following the car who saved him wasn't such a bad idea.

When we were at a safe distance I sent to my sister the position of an abandoned building under construction that we found in one of our previous drives in the suburbs. We reached the building after a good thirty minutes of driving in narrow side streets well above the speed limit. Redline and Gabriel stopped for a minute to catch their breath.

Redline was the first to break the silence.

"Who are you supposed to be? You look a bit too young to be an agent"

"Hum... I'm not an agent yet... though I'd really like to become a spy..." He told to Redline in his far from perfect English.

"You've got an Italian accent there. We really should speak about it later, I wonder how Italians got ahold of all those classified info..." He mumbled to himself.

In that moment I heard the sound of another engine, smaller than the ones of my brother and Redline.

I heard Redline wince, probably bracing himself for some kind of attack, but my brother didn't seem to be bothered by it. Soon after Mary entered in the building, I knew it was her when I heard her greeting Redline and Gabriel using some of the few English sentences she knew.

"Is she with you?" I heard Redline ask my brother.

"Oh... Hem... Yes" He answered hesitant.

"Anyway, let me introduce myself. My name is Rod Torque Redline, you can call me Rod" He told them.

"I am Gabriel Knight and this is my sister Mary" Said my brother.

"Nice to meet you Gabriel and Mary. Now I was wondering how two young cars like you managed to blow up an entire building, saving my life in the process, which I really must to thank you for. Any idea?" Asked Rod.

"Hum... We... Well... It was our sister!" Said Gabriel.

I facepalmed.

But then I had an idea.

"Call me and let me speak with him" I quietly told Gabriel.

"Your sister?" Asked Rod while Gabriel was calling me.

"Yes... she's not here... But I'm calling her so that you two can speak" Answered my brother.

I heard him shifting his tablet on the floor.

"Hello" I said answering to the call.

"Good evening, I'm here with your siblings. They told me you may have some explanation regarding the recent events. But first, what's your name?"

"You can call me Chris" I told him.

"Hi Chris, I'm the agent Rod Torque Redline but you can call me Rod if you like. I'd like to know how you and your brother managed to come up with such a dangerous idea. What was your objective?"

"Our objective was to save you. We were following the lemons, they threatened Mary a few days ago and they sounded suspicious. We saw them speaking about taking you, your cover was blown, so here we are. How we did that is irrelevant now" I answered.

"Tell me Chris, how old are you? How old are your siblings? How did you get into such a dangerous mission at your age?" So many questions, too many questions, I hated questions.

"We are old enough to reach our objectives. The past doesn't matter"

Apparently Rod realized that I wasn't going to give him any useful information because he changed his strategy.

"So, what's the point of this call Chris?"

I smiled a little. I wasn't exactly one for social iterations but it was nice to have some smart conversation once a while.

"Of course it does. I wanted to ask you a favor as a payback for the life debt you owe me and my siblings" I informed him.

"And what could it be?" Asked Rod.

"Go back in America. Report to your agency that you successfully passed the information. Leave the rest to the British" I listed in a flat tone.

"You want me to leave... Why? What would you do if I refused?" Asked Rod.

"Agent Rod Torque Redline you were supposed to die today in that building. I decided to save you. Don't make me regret that. Your intel has been successfully passed to the British, your job here is done. As you noticed I've got some dangerous information, don't make me use them. Go home Rod" And with my point made clear I ended the call.


	6. Jets

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Hey there! I finally got enough time to write another chapter. Hope you'll like it!

 **Jets**

For a few minutes the building was silent. Then Rod spoke.

"I still don't know who are you nor what's your business here but from what your sister said looks like you have more information about this case than the Americans and the English together"

"It's our sister who knows everything... Me and Mary were only doing what she told us to do" Tried to explain Gabriel.

"Good. At this point I consider my mission accomplished. Your sister is right, if the English's got the information there's nothing else I can do so I think I'll follow her advice and go back in America" Said Rod.

I heard him starting his engine and I quickly whispered something to my brother.

"Uhm Rod? Could you please take us with you back in America? We went to Japan to follow Zündapp but before that we used to live in America... We have no idea of where is our sister or when she is supposed to come back to us and she was usually the one to decide where to go and what to do... Please?"

Ok, now he was sounding a bit too pathetic.

"Hmm... Yeah I think I can do that" He answered after a couple of seconds.

"Follow me, we're going to the airport" He told them.

I shifted on the seat restless while my brother started to drive with my sister after Rod. I spent the last weeks carefully planning Rod's rescue and I still didn't know how that could have affected the storyline. So, following my instinct, in a few minutes I managed to put together some kind of course of actions to ensure that everything was going as it was supposed to go. A 'plan' that was probably going to kill me.

I was going to send my siblings back in America with Rod. They were going to be much safer there, they saved his life so he wasn't going to hurt them. Not to mention that they were still kids.

In less than twenty minutes we reached the airport where Rod said that a jet named Dave was on his way to pick them up.

While they were waiting I let my brother know about what they were supposed to do and while Rod was speaking with a white and blue, blue eyed Bombardier Global Express XRS Gabriel dropped me behind a pile of luggage. I told him I was going to have to check one or two things before going back to America but in the meantime I was going to send them an email every day, he was going to do the same, so if we stopped receiving news from each other we could know that something bad had happened.

I watched them getting on the Bombardier who then proceeded to start his engines and after a brief exchange with the tower he got on a taxiway rolling away from my sight. I watched as all the traffic just stopped to let him reach the runway and take off.

Surely being a 'spy plane' had its advantages. I struggled to get my eyes off him while he was flying away, gaining altitude, to focus on my search. The strict on my chest was getting worse, now it was almost painful, I really needed to fly.

Finally a silver Gulfstream V with a green visor appeared in my sight and parked not far from my hideout. Siddeley. I watched as the jet refueled exchanging a few words with the ramp workers.

Less than an hour later two familiar cars made their way toward Siddeley. A light blue Peerless GT and a purple Jaguar XJR-15. Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell. The three of them spoke for some minutes making the due introductions and planning their future actions 'till McMissile told Shiftwell that he was going to take Mater and left, the Jaguar drove up the ramp into the Gulfstream. That was my moment.

The ramp was still down so I sneaked closer hiding myself behind a fuel truck and I took a look inside the plane. Holley was parked in front of a console and seemed totally focused on the data displayed on her holographic screen. I spotted some dark curtains covering a side that in an ordinary aircraft should have divided the passengers' area from the cockpit. Bracing myself I took a quick look around before quickly but silently running to the curtains trying to keep my steps as soft as possible despite my combat boots.

I felt Siddeley jerking a little but when Holley questioned him he told her that everything was fine. I sighed in relief from my hideout. After less than ten minutes Siddeley informed Holley about the call he just received from Finn proceeding to close his cargo door, starting up his engines and performing a perfect vertical takeoff. I was truly amazed by the Gulfstream's ability, I wondered if the American Bombardier could also change his engines orientation and become VTOL if necessary.

We were now circling the airport and Siddeley with Shiftwell's help managed to spot Mater and Finn who were now running from the lemons. Probably every normal person should have been totally into the action at this point but I really couldn't stay focused. There was something definitely wrong with me. I was feeling unwell since I blew up the building. I was aching and bruised from all the stunts I threw and also because the place where I decided to take cover from the first explosion turned out to be not that good leaving my hoodie, hairs, hands and face slightly burnt.

But soon I realized that it wasn't because of the injuries that I was feeling like shit. The strict in my chest that I had previously assumed to be just 'ground sickness' was now becoming painful and suffocating. I couldn't breathe anymore. I suddenly started to feel claustrophobic. I had to get out. I had to feel the wind on my own skin.

Without even thinking about the consequences of what I was about to do I got up and I looked at the door. It was still open. Mater and Finn had just managed to get inside and Siddeley was rapidly gaining altitude. However the only thing I could focus on was the blue sky outside the closing door.

Without a second thought I ran to the door and jumped out.


	7. Mach 2,25

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Here's chapter seven, I just hope I got everything right…

 **Mach 2.25**

I was falling.

I just jumped out an aircraft from almost 5000 feet above the ground level without a parachute and I still managed to enjoy the feeling of the wind blowing on my burnt skin. The pain was vanished and overall I was feeling great. It had been since before the crash that I didn't felt so good, so free.

Suddenly I started to feel a strange heat expanding from my chest as a blinding light struck my eyes.

For a moment I couldn't see anything but white nor I could feel anything. Not the wind and neither my own body. Then the light slowly vanished and after a few seconds I was able to hear the roar of the wind and watch the ground getting closer once more.

But as I slowly started to feel my body again I noticed that something important was definitely off. My body. I was suddenly able to feel a totally different body as if it always belonged to me. I could still move somehow but not like before.

Fuselage, engines, wings... I suddenly became very aware of what just happened. I was an aircraft.

I quickly recovered from the shock and instinctively pulled up giving full throttle to my engines. This time I managed not to crash, missing the tarmac of a taxiway by less than twenty centimeters. Having my landing gear retracted surely helped. With my nose pointing slightly up, still feeling a bit dazed, I started to climb slowly to a safer altitude and in the meantime I closed my eyes and focused on my new body.

Almost immediately I managed to recall on the lower left side of my field of view some of the data on my flight. Now I knew that I was traveling at a speed of 323 knots gaining 1500 feet per minute, I had just passed 13500 feet but I decided to keep climbing 'till flight level 400. I could feel every single little shift and correction that my new body was making almost automatically to take me exactly where I wanted to go.

I opened my eyes and decided to try to learn what kind of plane I had become. Surely a fixed wing, likely some kind of fighter jet. My two engines were powerful and I had afterburners, as I discovered when I pulled up after nearly kissing a taxiway at over 400 knots, they seemed also capable of 2D, pitch-axis only, thrust vectoring. I couldn't really take a look at my instrument panel but with all the digital data that I could recall and my HUD I knew I had to be something pretty modern, maybe fifth-generation.

In front of me, if I tried to look down, I could see my nose, it was pretty pointed and black. I could feel my two delta wings, two air intakes at the sides of my fuselage, two canted vertical stabilizers and two moving horizontal tails. I could also feel my retracted tricycle landing gear, flaps and flaperons. From the look of it I was pretty sure that I was now an F-22A Raptor. Not bad, not at all!

At this point I couldn't really hold myself back anymore, I started to test each one of my control surfaces performing a series of maneuvers that I never even imagined I would try outside the flight simulator 'till that moment. Then I leveled and I started to increase the power to my engines, it didn't take much time for me to brake the sound barrier and I didn't even have to use my afterburners! Breaking the sound barrier had always been my dream.

I couldn't believe it, I was so freaking happy. I kicked on my afterburners flying faster and faster 'till I reached Mach 2. And I knew I could go even faster!

For more than an hour I literally played in the sky then, when I finally managed to calm down a little, I tried to take the stock of the situation. Aviate, navigate, communicate. Those had to be my priorities, in that order. I thought I could handle the aviate part pretty well so now I had to find out where I was.

I started to play with my avionics and after a few minutes I started to get the hang of it, or at least the basics, however I was now out the east coast of the Japan over the Pacific Ocean. I took some time to check my autonomy before doing a 180-turn setting a route toward Italy, I was going to have to refuel before leaving China.

Now that I was flying to a known destination at a speed of Mach 1.82 and an altitude of 45000 feet I could focus on the communications.

Yeah, sure! I was an F-22 who appeared out of nowhere right over Tokyo's airport proceeding to try to crash in a taxiway and missing only to perform something between an air show and another failed suicide attempt right before disappearing at supersonic speed, now let me just open a flight plan. I wondered if there was something that I forgot to fuck up.

But hey! I was a freaking F-22! Stealth! I just had to try to stay under the radar of a couple of nations and to avoid landing in busy controlled airspaces and big airports. Yeah sure! If that was going to work I would find a way to kiss my own ass even in that form! I tried to shut down everything that could make me visible including the transponder I climbed up to 65000 feet and I waited for someone or something to try to shoot me down.

After 40 minutes of flight I started to think that maybe just maybe it really worked, or maybe I was just looking too pathetic.

However I still had to find somewhere to refuel. I descended to 10000 feet reducing my speed at 300 knots, there were lots of airports, many more than in our dimension. I decided to try a small, but not too small, airport near a little country town. Not too busy and the runway looked long enough for a possible screw up and go around, I still needed to figure out the leading-edge flaps along with many other things.

I turned on my radio and transponder before getting too close, it was in a class G* airspace and apparently, from the few English comms on the frequency, there wasn't any ATZ* but I still felt like to be polite and possibly safer letting them know where I was, who I was and what were my intentions.

"This is Knight1 coming from east, long final runway 09" I said in English hoping to be understood.

"Roger Knight1. Wind 120 3 knots, QNH 1013, landing at your discretion" Came the answer after a few seconds with a strong Chinese accent.

"Roger Knight1" I told them before starting my descent.

My very first landing as an aircraft. It was like back at my first solo flight, I was feeling pretty tense. Thanks to my previous experiences with my many flight simulators and video games I managed to slow down to a good speed and to lower my flaps and landing gear at the right moment.

Not bad for the first time, I thought happily after leaving the runway. Maybe I dropped down the front wheel a bit too hard because of my high speed and my flare hadn't been exactly perfect but I came out without any damage.

I kept rolling through the many taxiways following the signs for the fuel pumps until I reached the area where they were located. I stopped in and I looked around the trying to spot a JP-8* or F-34* sign I was almost about to leave when I noticed that I wasn't the only fighter jet in the area.

A white Shenyang J-8II was refueling in the back-left side of the yard. I rolled toward the J-8 and right next to him I found what I was looking for. I decided to wait for him to finish before refueling and I stopped a couple of meters away from the pumps. Not even five minutes later he was done but before leaving he looked at me, probably noticing me for the first time, and then proceeded to talk to me fast in Chinese. Only after a few seconds he noticed that I was just starring back at him blankly and realized that I couldn't understand a word of what he was trying to tell me, he then left after probably telling me goodbye, I wasn't sure.

Following his example I hooked up to the pump and after a few seconds I felt the fuel starting to fill my almost empty tanks. I looked around and saw a small pink sedan, looking pretty bored, who was parked at a desk near the entrance of the yard. The aircrafts gave her the numbers of their pumps and payed for their fuel before leaving. Once I was done I took my number in my mouth and I dropped it in a litter bin. After that I waited for a dark blue and yellow Embraer 190 who sounded Spanish and not so good with English to start to speak with the pink sedan before quickly pass behind him unnoticed and get out of the refueling area.

Less than ten minutes later I was flying again, invisible. I made four more stops in Russia wishing I had some external fuel tanks even if they took away my stealth factor. I was freaking fast but I couldn't really last long even with the help of supercruise.

I got some suspicious looks from a pair of Mig-23ML on my last stop. They were a boy and a girl, both pretty young, maybe in their teens. Or at least they sounded like that. They were almost identical, probably brother and sister or even twins, both with their dark green paint job and hazel eyes the only difference was their voices.

More than two months were passed since the crash but I still sucked in distinguishing vehicles' sex or their age, I could just tell apart the children because they were smaller. Watching them speak I realized that we had another problem. My brother and my sister looked pretty different from each other, they barely passed as siblings. I wasn't going to be able to pretend to be even their fourth cousin. Surely Rod was going to be surprised when we were going to meet...

Screw that, even my own siblings were going to have trouble at recognizing me. I guess I could still say I was adopted.

I taxied to the runway, taking off and heading to my final destination. Italy.

*Class G airspace: Basically there are 7 kind of airspaces: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. F and G are not controlled.

*ATZ: Stands for Aerodrome Traffic Zone and it's the area that surrounds some airports (usually they're 2000 feet high and 10 miles of diameter), some of them are controlled even if they're in a class G airspace, you have to ask the permission to enter and obey to the tower when you are inside them.

*JP-8: Stands for Jet Propellant 8 and is the NATO fuel now in use for military aircrafts.

*F-34: Is the NATO code for the JP-8 fuel.


	8. Buona Notte

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

 **Buona Notte**

Right after passing the Italian border I decided to stop hiding so I descended to 40000 feet and I turned on my transponder.

I made very few communications, apparently in this world communicating was requested only in some big and busy airports' ATZ, class G airspaces were almost everywhere and almost everyone who was speaking with the controllers was some kind of passenger of cargo aircraft on duty. Wandering around the frequencies I noticed that aircrafts that weren't working just spoke directly at each other about traffic, weather and other things.

I still couldn't believe it... I was pretty sure that if I tried something like that back in my world I would have been at least intercepted. But it looked like that here, in this world full of sentient vehicles, many rulers and procedures were simplified or even nonexistent. After all not only well trained pilots could roam around the sky here. If a retarded was born as an A380 he had to be able to fly without working as hard and study as much as our pilots to obtain the habilitation to fly that kind of aircraft. I wondered if accidents were more frequent here or if sentient aircrafts were somehow safer. I just hoped to avoid discovering it in the hard way.

However, in that moment my objective was still Rome Fiumicino's airport. LIRF. It wasn't too far from Porto Corsa, I had to be able to reach it quickly if something happened. No one had to interfere with the story. Once I touched down on the runway 16L and after a brief exchange with the tower I relaxed on my landing gear with a sigh, fortunately I didn't have to pay for handling in this dimension. It had to be a dream, that was one of the main reasons why I always avoided important airports back in my dimension.

I got out of the runway from one of the main taxiways before passing on a secondary one, with so many taxiways and no one to tell me where to go I was feeling a bit lost but I kept following the indications for the military grade fuel pumps. This airport was huge and much busier compared to the ones where I previously landed, it had three different refueling areas: one for prop planes, the other for civilian jets, helicopters and turbo props and the last one had military jet fuel. There were also fuel trucks but they were expensive and almost only airliners and cargo planes in service used them.

I managed to reach the right area and I hooked up to the nearest free pump. There were many aircraft in there. Almost everyone was some kind of military jet, turbo prop or helicopter but I also noticed a Mig-3 with old markings having a conversation with an old looking silver F-86 who was refueling.

On my right side there was a dark gray, blue eyed F-15C Eagle. Now that I was pretty close to him I noticed something weird. He was more than two meters longer than me and about one meter higher. At first I wondered if that was a bigger version of F-15, than I started to wonder if I really was an F-22 and not something different but, after a brief check, I concluded that he was probably a perfectly average sized F-15 and I was an undersized F-22.

Apparently the dimensions of my old body were mirrored in this new one. I almost hoped that every aircraft model was meant to be a specific size, I wondered if I also looked some years younger like back in my dimension, that could be a problem. At least I could still look down at almost every kind of car and forklift. It's something.

I noted that my brother wasn't as big as he should have been and that my sister was definitely smaller than a standard sized car but I thought it was because of their age. Well, maybe I could also hope to grow another little bit, after all I was still seventeen.

I took a look at my fuel indicator and I noticed that my tanks were still half empty. I relaxed with a sigh and prepared myself to wait for my tanks to fill up. I didn't notice when I fall asleep but it wasn't such a surprise, I had been awake for days and now that the excitement had finally left me I almost literally fainted.

"Hey kid! Are you ok there?"

The slightly worried voice broke through the darkness forcing me to wake up and open my eyes. In front of me there was an Eurofighter Typhoon with gray eyes and a dark blue paint job. I blinked a few times and shook my nose trying to get my clouded mind to come up with some kind of answer but without luck.

"Where are you from? You look really tired" Asked again the Eurofighter switching to English.

"It's fine... I'm fine" I mumbled first in English and then in Italian trying to focus on the words and not to close my eyes.

The Eurofighter gave me a doubtful look. Probably my slurred words weren't that convincing.

"Sorry kid if I don't fully believe you but you look really exhausted. I don't think that this is a good place to sleep... You should be done with your refueling, aren't you?" He gently asked me.

I blinked one or two times taking a whole minute to process barely a half of his words.

I was refueling. I fell asleep while I was refueling. Right in the middle of a crowded area. The thought of how many people could have snuck on me struck me pretty hard. My eyes went wide and I quickly unplugged from the pump checking the time. I had slept for almost one hour. I desperately tried to focus on my surroundings but my view was still blurry, I finally managed to face again the Eurofighter.

"Sorry, and thank you for waking me up" I told him quickly before trying to reach the taxiway and almost running over a white forklift who was crossing the refueling area carrying some tools.

"Hey! Wait a second!" Shouted the Eurofighter before quickly rolling after me.

"You aren't going anywhere until you had at least 12 hours of sleep" He told me in a severe tone.

"But I have to..."

"Whatever you have to do can wait. Right now you are a hazard on the ground let alone in the sky" Pointed out the Typhoon.

"Follow me" He then said but I didn't move and when the Eurofighter turned back at me with a sigh I simply gave him a wary look.

"How can I trust you?" I slowly asked.

The Typhoon signed again.

"My wife works as a security guard at this airport" He said.

"I know some hangars that are almost always empty, it will be dark soon and you really need to sleep. No one will bother you there" He told me looking right in my eyes.

"Now will you follow me or do I have to call someone to tow you there?" He asked when I didn't answer.

Usually I would never have trusted a stranger so easily but with my tired and clouded mind I decided to just follow him. The Eurofighter looked pleased and he introduced himself as Edoardo. I followed him through many taxiways 'till he suddenly stopped and I nearly ended up with my nose in one of his engines exhaust. He just chuckled and opened the doors of one of the hangars.

Once I was inside he gave me a frequency to call if I needed something and then he went away shutting off the lights and closing the doors leaving me alone in the hangar. Less than ten seconds later I was asleep.


	9. Feuer Frei!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Hello again guys and sorry for taking so long but you know, life happens and I didn't really have time to even think about writing another chapter for this story. From the last time I got some really useful advices and I'm slowly gonna try to apply them to the previous chapters, thank you for your support.

 **Feuer Frei!**

I slowly awoke to the muffed sound of two familiar voices arguing.

"It's impossible, I'm sure. I've seen him with my own eyes!"

"I have no idea of what you've seen but it certainly wasn't him!"

My control surfaces fluttered as I yawned, still half asleep, but then I started to realize the situation I was in.

Siddeley and Dave were outside my hangar and they seemed to be having some sort divergence of opinion. Why did I have a feeling that that wasn't supposed to happen?

I silently rolled to the doors and I opened them a little peeking outside. Yeah, I had surely screwed up something important.

I opened the doors enough for me to slip through and then I rolled toward the two jets that were parked at the other end of the yard. They were still arguing and none of them gave any sign to acknowledge my presence. Weren't they supposed to be spies? I was definitely not impressed.

I moved out Dave's shadow revealing myself to Siddeley who suddenly stopped talking giving me a surprised look that was quickly replaced with a wary one. It took Dave some seconds to spot me but when he finally noticed Siddeley's gaze he turned around quickly facing me. When I was sure to have their attention I focused on Dave.

"Aren't you agent Redline's partner? What are you doing here? I thought that he was back in America" I asked him.

"Who are you and how you got ahold of that information?" Dave looked pretty on the edge, I was sure I had his guns aiming at me at that point.

"I was the one who told him to go back and if I'm not mistaken my siblings were supposed to go with him" I told him.

"So you are that girl Rod told me about, Chris!" He gaped at me.

"That's me. Nice to meet you. I don't think I got your name though" I decided to pretend not to know him personally, he was still looking a bit too wary.

"I'm Dave Rudder" He said after a few seconds.

"So Dave, would you mind to tell me why exactly are you here? And more important where are my siblings?" Maybe it came out a bit cold but I really needed to know how bad Rod messed up with the plot while I was asleep and also the idea that my little brother and sister may have been left unattended just didn't settle well.

"Rod isn't here, he's back in Washington with little Mary and Gabriel, I came alone just to let the English know that he managed to get back to America safely" Answered Dave.

What a mess.

I sighed and I turned to face Siddeley.

"So you should be one of the English agents right?" I asked him.

He looked briefly at Dave before answering me.

"Affirmative, agent Siddeley at your service"

"It's a pleasure to meet you Siddeley, I'm Chris. Now may I know what you and Dave were talking about?" I politely asked him.

For a few seconds Siddeley just stared at me thoughtfully before answering.

"I don't think I got what is exactly your role in all this mess but you look like someone whose got answers so I don't see any problem in giving you some details" He stopped briefly.

"Dave told me that the American agent that was meant to meet with one of ours got back in America while I'm a hundred percent sure that he's still here. Last time I spoke with my partner he was with him and it was no more than five hours ago!" He said.

Ok, now at least I knew where was the problem.

"Well... The truth is... That you're both right. The agent you were supposed to meet got back in America but before that he passed the information to another car, someone with the right ability and experience to help you out" I told Siddeley.

"Are you saying that the American passed the information to a civilian?!" Asked Siddeley in disbelief.

"Yeah, something like that" I answered.

"I have to call Finn" He then announced.

Hell no.

"I don't think that it would be such a good idea"

"How couldn't it be a good idea! Finn is my partner and I won't leave him unaware of such an important information!" He replied annoyed.

"I know that to involve a civilian in your mission is against all your procedures but, think about it, if you get the right civilian it could give you a huge help. After all, if my brothers weren't there that night I can ensure you that agent Rod Redline would have been pretty dead" I really had to avoid to let them to speak with Finn, or at least not today.

If I wasn't wrong that was supposed to be the date of the second race of the World Grand Prix.

"Independently from his future role in this mission Finn should know his status" Replied Siddeley.

I sighed in frustration. How could I manage to convince him that letting things sort out by themselves was far better for everyone?

The answer of my question came from the sky in the shape of a missile that proceeded to hit the hangar where I had previously slept. I closed my eyes as the shockwave hit us. When I opened them again I was surprised to find myself behind Dave's left wing with Siddeley in front of us.

"Are you ok girl?" Asked Siddeley.

"Affirmative" I answered while my eyes were already scanning the sky.

I spotted the dark shape of some kind of fighter jet through the clouds, it was turning around, probably for another strike. We were under attack and I had no weapons, flares or chaffs and absolutely zero first-hand experience.

"They are targeting us! We have to take them away from the city!" Told Dave to Siddeley, his voice filled with urgency.

He and Siddeley changed their engine orientation and proceeded to perform a vertical takeoff. I just starred at them for a few seconds before quickly looking for a taxiway enough long and straight and taking off.

I headed straight where I saw them disappear out of the city and above the sea. When I spotted them I noticed that they had already engaged their enemy, managing to lead them away from the city. There were two F-106A Delta Dart and one F-111F Aardvark. The hostile aircrafts didn't seem to mind the place of the fight as they looked totally focused on taking down the spies. I followed them but I kept high, out of their battle and sight, I wondered if that battle or something similar shouldn't have happened or if it has just been ignored in the film.

The two spies weren't going bad considering that they were outnumbered and that, even with all their enhancements and fancy gadgets, they weren't really meant for dogfighting. They could probably have a little problem taking down an enemy from far away and even detect and avoid radar or IR-missiles but in a close-range dogfight like that they struggled to keep up with their enemy's maneuverability, even the Aardvark bested them in that field, and the problem was that enemy aircrafts seemed to know that and didn't let them put any kind of distance between them. Anyway, it was obvious that they both had a freaking good training and probably shitloads of experience.

Right when Siddeley finally managed to get a critical hit on one of the F-106 setting him on fire sending him to crash in the water, Dave got a round from the other F-106's Vulcan right in his tail and his left engine that stopped with a trail of black smoke coming out of it, even his right one was damaged.

It was like... Ace Combat in real life. With the difference that here there wasn't the retry option, and because planes were sentient there wasn't even the possibility to eject. That F-106 was certainly dead and Dave was probably about to follow, he was trying to get back to the airport for an emergency landing but the other F-106 was still hot on his tail and now he was starting to run out of altitude, struggling to stay leveled, with no room for any more evasive maneuver.

Meanwhile Siddeley was busy with the F-111, I wasn't even sure that he noticed Dave's situation. And I couldn't do nothing but watch, unarmed, useless, inexperienced. I thought back at the moment when the missile hit the hangar, they immediately rushed to protect me, shield me from the debris. Like I was some kind of helpless child. And I really couldn't stand to depend on somebody else.

With two younger brothers and busy parents I had to learn quick to be independent and those few times that I tried to rely on someone ended up pretty badly for me.

And now Dave was about to die. Right after he defended me. I couldn't accept that.

Me, the girl who always used her cold mind to get out of difficult situations, for the first time ever I felt like I needed to take part in a battle with my heart and with all the odds against me. It was just illogical but I just wanted to defend someone that I barely knew and not because of the thrill or to make somebody pay, I couldn't get any personal advantage from this battle, just Dave's life, and the price was likely going to be mine.

Aware of the high chances that I had to end up as a broken and bent piece of metal filled with holes in the bottom of the sea I headed down, right in the fire.


	10. Bonds

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Hi! I'm not dead, just busy as always. Sorry for whatever mistake you may find.

 **Bonds**

Four days.

Four days were passed since the last time she saw her sister, she was supposed to write them once a day but now four whole days were passed and both her and his brother hadn't heard a single word from her.

Gabriel didn't look much worried, he simply told her that Chris was probably just busy.

Mary's opinion was pretty different.

She slowed down her pacing to take a brief look out of the window. The sun was shining and its golden rays peeked through the curtains into her temporary room.

She frowned.

She was so worried, even scared. It all started with the crash, before that day she had a happy life with a cozy house, her parents, her horse and her many friends but then bad things started to happen and in a few seconds she lost everything, even her own body, the only things she had left were her siblings.

And now her sister was missing.

She sighed and she turned on her tablet checking her mailbox. Nothing. She then started to type her another message, the twelfth since they split. She really didn't know what to do anymore, she was so totally out of ideas. Tears started to form at the corners of her eyes and for the third time in that day she started to sob. She could almost hear her sister's voice hissing her to stop being a crybaby and get her shit together but she really, really couldn't help.

Her older sister wasn't exactly what you call a nice, sweet and caring person. She was grumpy and antisocial, always quiet and she got annoyed easily. But she was strong, nothing seemed to break her, she was a leader and she cared of her team in her own way.

She missed her.

A lot.

Of course she was missing lots of people, her mum, her best friend Martha but… She was lost in a new world, in a city where she had never been before under the protection of someone she didn't know. She was lost and scared and she needed her sister to tell her what to do to make things right once again.

She heard gunshots and her brother's swears from the living room. When they arrived in America they have been given a suite in a nearby hotel and after some pleading her brother managed to get a PlayStation from their new, hopefully temporary, babysitter and he was now spending all his time on it, testing the new games that this world offered.

She was a bit envious, she really wanted to know how did he managed to appear so unconcerned about their and their sister's fate.

Rod had taken them to a hotel saying he still had some work to do. They were to stay in their suite and every now and then he came in to check on them. They could go out only if accompanied. Of course he tried to question them, he asked things like "Where are your parents?" "Where do you live?" "Do you know when is your sister coming to pick you up?" and so on. She couldn't speak English very well and so she leaved them to her brother. He told him that their parents died five years ago and when their sister turned eighteen they went under her care.

He refused to tell any further detail on their sister minus her name and age, although he lied a little on the latter and that could have been a problem. Chris didn't really look older than thirteen… Oh screw that! If she was still human it didn't really matter how old she looked.

They tried to update her on the situation via mail but she wasn't answering.

Mary drove to the bathroom and starred at her reflection on the mirror. A white car was looking back. She wasn't even her anymore.

Tired of crying and hearing her brother's videogames she reached her tablet and called Rod. After a few seconds he picked up and she simply told him that she wanted to go out. About fifteen minutes later he knocked at their door. Maybe a drive through the city would help her, after all there wasn't really anything she could do for her sister. Maybe she just had to wait, maybe Gabriel was right and her snarky older sister was just busy and would be back soon.

Mary drove behind Rod, careful not to get lost in the traffic. Washington was a huge city, Rod took her to a couple of museums and bought her an ice cream on their way back. Mary liked Rod, even though he had been a little cold and wary at the beginning, at least now that he realized that they were just kids who didn't have any sort of relevant information on the cars who they met in the abandoned warehouse back in Japan he was trying to be gentle and take care of them while their sister was gone.

They got back to the Hotel where Rod informed them that he wasn't going to have dinner with them that night, he got an important call and had to be elsewhere.

Mary sat at her table sipping some oil while absently watching a noisy family with a toddler a few tables away, they looked so happy together. She sighed heavily, apparently not even her brother was going to be with her that night, he was probably busy with his games. Giving up at trying to eat something she drove back in their room.

When she got in she was surprised to find that her brother's game was paused and he was nowhere to be seen. She quickly drove to his room only to find it empty. Mary rushed back in the living room getting more and more worried as time passed. Where was he? They weren't allowed to go out on their own. Was he ok? Maybe he was in danger… He could have been kidnapped!

A sudden noise from the door made Mary almost literally jump out of her tires. Gabriel entered quietly and made his way to his room pushing her with him in the process.

"Where have you been? You know we aren't supposed to get out without Rod!" Hissed Mary, her voice filled with anger and fear.

"Just shut up and listen! I overheard Rod speaking with someone on the phone, something bad happened to Dave, I think he's been attacked." Said Gabriel trying to keep his voice low.

"Oh my God! Really?! He was such a nice guy! Are you sure? Will he be ok? You think…"

"And that's not all, I also heard something about Italy but I couldn't make out what. Do you think he'll send us back?"

"I don't know… Maybe? But… Wait a minute you said that Dave was attacked in Italy?"

"No… Yes… I don't know, I don't think that the two topics were related… Or maybe they were?" Mumbled Gabriel, mostly to himself.

Mary had a weird feeling in her tank, she rushed to her room and pulled out her tablet.

There!

The three legs of the World Grand Prix… Japan, Italy and England! For some reason Chris was still following the World Grand Prix, if she hadn't stopped in Japan, she must have been it Italy! Also Rod and David were following the races, Rod was captured in Japan and now Dave had been injured or worst in Italy! She was in Italy and she was going to be in England in less than one week!

That if she was still alive, she could have been attacked like Dave or she could have been spotted and taken to some kind of secret laboratory or… No.

She had to trust her sister, she was smart and she could take care of herself. Maybe by this time she also got turned into a vehicle.

Mary tried to picture her sister as a vehicle, of course she had to be some kind of aircraft, maybe some fancy jet like Dave, he was way cooler then the small plane she usually flew.

She snapped out of her daydreaming when Gabriel rudely prodded her with his tire.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?! What are you doing?" He asked sounding annoyed.

"I know where is Chris, and I know where she's going to be in a few days!"

"Are you kidding me? She has to be somewhere in Japan doing God only knows what, we're never going to find her like this."

"No, no, no! Don't you get it? We went to Japan to follow Rod who must have been following the World Grand Prix with his partner who's been shot down in Italy, the second leg! Chris must be in Italy, or maybe leaving for England as it ended today, and she will be in London, near the race! We can find her!" Explained Mary cheerfully.

"Uhmmm… That actually makes sense… Are you sure about it?"

"That the best guess I came up with. It's our sister… Let's give it a shot!"

"Ok, ok. But how were you planning to get in England? We can't exactly drive there and we can't even earn enough money for a plane ticket in less than two days. We are stuck with the spy car." Pointed Gabriel.

"Well… We'll just have to ask Rod!"

"Rod won't take us anywhere without a damn good reason especially not after what happened to his jet friend" Replied Gabriel.

"So? We'll just give him a good reason, he's babysitting us because we saved him so he's just keeping us safe until Chris get back. We'll just have to tell him the truth, that she's waiting for us in London." Replied Mary.

"What if she's not there? And don't forget about the human problem, Rod will want to meet her."

"Ooh! Stop being so lazy! She is our sister and we are coming for her, if she's still human we'll just pick her up and keep her hidden, we'll tell Rod that we couldn't find her and think about something else later, with Chris' help." Said Mary sounding pretty frustrated.

"Hey, chill! I'm not lazy! I was just trying to think before acting! However, if you are so scared without your big sister we're going to speak with Rod tomorrow. It's getting late and I still have to finish the match." Said Gabriel heading toward the PlayStation and resuming his game.

Mary huffed slamming closed the door of her room. Sometimes her siblings could be very annoying. She parked on her pillow and when she was about to turn off the light she spotted her tablet on the floor near the switch, she picked it and started to type another message to her sister telling her about their plans on going to London. Chris wasn't answering but maybe she could at least read it.

Mary turned both her tablet and the light off before relaxing on her suspensions and falling asleep.


	11. Hide and Seek

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

 **Hide and Seek**

When she woke up that morning she was surprised to notice that the sun was just starting to rise above the horizon between the buildings, she never usually woke up that soon, not unless she had to. Maybe it was because of the excitement and anticipation that was running through her body at the thought of finally finding her sister.

Breakfast wasn't until another two hours so after checking again her tablet for new mails without luck se got in the bathroom and took a shower... Or car wash. When she got out her white and purple frame was shining. She went to wake up her brother who had fallen asleep in front of the TV, then they both made their way downstairs eager to speak with Rod.

Unfortunately a nasty surprise was waiting for them on the table in the shape of a piece of paper that informed them that Rod was still busy but it also said to gather their things because he was going to pick them up the next day after breakfast.

There wasn't any further detail and Mary could feel her hopes being crushed.

She spent the whole day pacing in her room wondering if they could still have a chance to go to England. During the day she tried multiple times to contact Rod but he never answered.

That night her dreams were troubled by nightmares about the crash and their small burning airplane that turned into Dave before the fire engulfed also her and her siblings. She woke up screaming and when she stepped in the living room Gabriel was giving her weird looks.

They had breakfast together before heading to the lobby and wait for Rod. He stepped in less than ten minutes later and they followed him all the way to the airport without a word, even if he tried to act casual he looked tired and a bit worried.

Mary thought it was because of Dave, maybe they were going to see him in Italy. In any other moment Mary would have been more than happy to go back to her country but now… Now she was just missing her sister.

They finally reached a red and silver jet almost as big as Dave with three engines on her tail. She briefly introduced herself as Elise before they were on the ramp and into the jet, taking off within minutes.

The flight was quite boring, Gabriel was sleeping while Rod and Elise engaged a polite conversation without revealing anything about their trip.

When she once again felt the tarmac under her tires she couldn't help but feel relieved to be back in her country and hear people speak a language she had no trouble to understand, of course she was still worried for her sister and she was also sorry for whatever happened to Rod's friend but she was happy to be finally back.

A green forklift with brown eyes moved toward them but before he had time to say anything Rod stopped him gesturing toward them. Mary was starting to feel a bit pissed, why did he even brought them here if he didn't want them to know anything?

They were leaded to a small room that looked like some kind of small break room built in the side of a big hangar in what probably was an 'hospital for aircrafts'? She couldn't be sure but there were many big hangars with red crosses in the area. Cars, planes and a large number of forklifts were roaming around carrying tools and looking busy.

Not to mention that even without being an expert she could see that almost every aircraft who was outside the hangars sported some kind of damage. On their way there they even had to stop to let the white forklift who was leading them help to break up an argument between a big light blue jet with a dent in one of his winglets and a smaller white and red one with a damaged rudder.

Once they were in the room however Rod and the forklift left, after making sure they knew that they were to stay put and that going out was absolutely forbidden. After the first fifteen minutes Mary was already bored out of her mind and Gabriel didn't look any better. In the room there wasn't anything even a little bit interesting, just some tables, an old TV in a corner without the remote and some vending machines.

Mary was starting to doze off while starring at the wall when she heard Gabriel pass by.

"What are you doing?" She asked when she saw him slowly open the door and peek outside.

"Just watching." He mumbled fully opening the door and starting to drive out.

"Stop! You are going to get in trouble!"

"Oh, shut it crybaby!"

"I'm not a crybaby! You're gonna get grounded if Rod sees you!"

"IF he sees me. I'm sick of waiting, I'm going for a drive. If you're too scared to come you're free to stay here. It's not like I care." He replied harshly before starting to drive away from the building.

"Hey, wait!" She shouted before starting her engine and drive after him.

The hospital area was huge, apparently they were near the first aid section. Both planes and mechanics barely spared them a look, everyone looked too busy to notice them, and for once Mary was pretty happy about that.

"Let's find Dave." Proposed Gabriel.

"We have no idea of where he could be and this place is huge, we're going to get lost if we don't go back immediately." Replied Mary.

"Ok, go back. I'll find Dave."

"Hey! Where are you going?! Wait for me! Huff…" Mary didn't waste time speeding after her brother.

They spent more than an hour searching the hospital without luck before Gabriel finally agreed to head back to their room. They managed to get halfway back before they both spotted a familiar blue car driving out of a hangar and disappear inside another building.

They remained frozen where they were for almost two minutes, they almost got caught!

Mary sighed in relief before resuming her drive to the room at a slightly quicker peace. She drove for barely 200 meters before stopping and looking back at her brother whose windshield was now facing the hangar that Rod had just left.

"Hey, are you coming or what?" She yelled.

"I want to check that out." He said before starting to head to the hangar.

However he didn't get far, a few seconds later the hangar's doors cracked open again and a small white car who Mary thought could be a Toyota and a forklift drove out and closed the doors before starting to chat.

"I still can't believe it! That shouldn't be possible!" Started the Toyota.

Gabriel reversed quickly, getting behind a corner where he was joined by his sister. They exchanged a quick look before focusing back on the two nurses.

"Wake up Anna! Did you miss all the weapons and modifications? He's not a plain civilian Bombardier Global Express by any means… And did you see his partner? He looked extremely though and also really hot!" Stated the forklift with a weird smile and dreamy eyes.

"Oh, stop right there Lucy! Every single time you meet a slightly nice-looking guy you only think about dating!"

"Sorry can't help there. You're just envious because you're married!" Prodded the forklift.

"Shut up! I'm perfectly good with Simon!"

"Oh, yeah, right. Whatever you say…"

"Humph… However, think about it! That Bombardier made it all the way to the airport on half an engine! And did a perfect landing! Even with all the fire he took!" Said the Toyota who was apparently named Anna.

Mary was filled with relief at hearing that Dave made it back and was going to be fine.

"And what about that young girl? I heard she didn't have any weapons and she still managed to take down one of the attackers."

At the forklift's words Mary peeked off her hiding place a little puzzled, Gabriel hadn't reported about anyone other than Dave having been attacked.

"Young girl? You mean the Raptor?" Asked the Toyota.

"Exactly. Although she was looking pretty beat up after she landed."

"And you do really believe at those bullshits? I mean, c'mon, she looked like… Twelve?" Laughed the Toyota. "She was probably just some random kid who roamed too close to the fight and got caught in the crossfire." Said the white car.

"I don't think so. And by the way she was definitely older then twelve, I think somewhere around fourteen, maybe even fifteen." Replied the forklift.

"You really should…" The car was interrupted by the ring of her phone.

"Wait a sec."

She then proceeded to answer the call. "Hi! Are you here yet?... Oh! Really!... Ok, I'll be there in a minute, love you, bye!"

"It was Simon, he's taking me out for dinner!" She explained to the forklift.

"Well, I'd better get going, I have to check up on Diego before he blows another tire… Bye! And have fun!"

"Bye! See you tomorrow!"

The two nurses went away leaving Mary and Gabriel alone in the night.

Mary took some minutes to process the new information before slowly turning to face his brother.

"You think…"

The sentence died on her lips but her brother seemed to understand. There were simply too many coincidences, the young girl who was attacked with Dave just had to be their sister.

"We're going to find her. She has to be here, somewhere." Said Gabriel.

And in that moment the search begun, without even knowing what a 'Raptor' was supposed to look like they took off, looking for their missing sister.


	12. Grounded

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Cars, all characters and references belong to Disney.

Hallo again guys! I know I've kinda been dead for months and I'm sorry about that but I was (and still am) really busy, once again sorry. I wanted to thank all of you who keep reading in particular the last guest who reviewed and reminded me of this story, thanks! I'll try not to disappear anymore but I can't promise you anything. For now enjoy this chapter, hopefully it turned out fine even after all this time.

Technical note: I revised and corrected all the older chapters, hopefully now they're more readable and with less mistakes. Some sentences and small details may have changed but nothing remotely relevant for the plot.

 **Grounded**

Boredom. The worst feeling ever.

Nothing was worse than being bored out of your mind, and you knew you were when you realized that you could probably tell with discrete precision the area of the room you were in. I sighed tiredly, dropping even lower on my landing gear and shifting my attention from the ceiling to the wall in front of me. So. Fucking. Bored.

The first day hadn't been that bad. Well, I had numerous mechanics poking and prodding me almost the whole time, opening maintenance panels and messing around with my internal mechanisms without the slightest care of my privacy or personal space but at least I wasn't bored.

I had to admit it though, my brain wasn't really working at top speed back there. Honestly, my memories of those moments were pretty hazy and confused but after all the shit that happened that particular morning I was just glad to be alive, even if a bit worse of wear. I could still recall clearly the memories of the fight though, every single detail, from the moment I decided to do something to save Dave's tail to my less than perfect landing.

I was really fond of carefully thinking through things before doing anything rash but that day I dove down in the middle of a dogfight without any fucking idea of what I was going to do. That day I had only a couple of precious seconds to come up with something that could save Dave's life possibly without costing me mine. I had to stop that F-106 but I didn't have any weapon, at first I thought about physically hitting him, but that would have been literally a kamikaze attack. Fortunately by the time I reached him I managed to elaborate a better strategy, how could I manage to take him down without any physical contact? Why not by trying to introduce my afterburners to his intakes. And guess what? It worked just fine! Well, it could had been better it the fucker didn't have the time to put a good round of his M61 right in my ass in the process but both me and Dave were alive so I guess I couldn't complain.

After that my HUD not so kindly informed me about the damage and I wisely decided to follow Dave straight back to the airport leaving the F-111 to Siddeley. I was leaking fuel and my right engine and right horizontal tail were damaged, I had to shut down the first in order to avoid setting it on fire. I touched down on the runway 16R right next to Dave and I was quickly surrounded by emergency vehicles that once they assured I wasn't on fire quickly escorted me in my current location, only when I was settled in the hangar with the mechanics starting to inspect the damage I started to feel the pain. And it freaking hurt! Being hit by a 20 mm was now on my list of the top 10 experiences I did never ever want to repeat. Especially after the mess it made with my engine. I was now grounded for a week and confined to that hangar for at least another two days. I wasn't sure I was going to survive the boredom though.

I straightened myself up on my landing gear before rolling towards the doors with renewed propose. I hadn't just survived a dogfight only to die of boredom. Ronald, a small green eyed, dark blue forklift who came to check on me every two hours or so had left only a couple of minutes before so I had some time to sneak out and get back, possibly without being noticed.

I opened the doors using the pedal and closed them once I was outside. The cool night breeze on my fuselage and wings did wonders for my mood and after stretching myself and testing every control surface I was overall satisfied. Everything but my right engine was working, even if a bit stiff and sore. I had no idea of where to go so I opted for the taxiway on my left and started rolling. I roamed around for a while and I was almost about to head back when I noticed some vending machines. They had chips. I decided I needed chips.

I was halfway through my snack when I heard someone approaching behind me. I turned around quickly thinking I had been caught. To say I was surprised would have been an euphemism, I was expecting many things but definitely not them.

"Excuse me, we're looking for our sister, a Raptor named Christine Knight, she's seventeen but looks younger. Have you seen her?" Asked Mary.

Oh, really? Did they even know what a Raptor was supposed to look like? They really had to work on their ability, or the lack of it, of elaborating data. They were now looking uneasy, probably because of the unimpressed look I was giving them.

"You have no idea of what an F-22A Raptor looks like, do you? C'mon it's a pretty famous aircraft."

"Chris? It's that you?" Asked Gabriel.

"The one and only" I answered with a smirk.

"CHRIS!" Mary came at me with teary eyes and started with one of her monologues while trying to nuzzle me.

"Chris! Chris! Where have you been?! Why didn't you write us? I was so worried! Rod took us in that huge city and we didn't know if you were ok! And I was really worried! Then Gabriel heard that Dave was hurt in Italy and then Rod took us here! We have been looking for you for hours! And… Oh! Some nurses said you were hurt! Are you hurt? Are you…"

"Get away from my landing gear and stop babbling nonsenses!" I said trying to shake her off.

But she was persistent.

"No way! And don't even think about leaving us alone ever again!" She said stubbornly.

"I'm not going anywhere! Now scram!" I told her trying to back away.

She finally relented and I managed to put a few feet between us.

"Swear it"

"What?"

"Swear it. Never again!" She told me, her shiny brown eyes locked with mines.

"As I already told you, I'm not going anywhere, I swear"

"YAY!" She then tried to tackle me again giggling.

"Get off me you idiot!"

"Smile for the camera!" I froze and I noticed Gabriel parked at a safe distance from our brawl with his tablet aiming at us.

"Don't you dare!" I growled doubling mi efforts to untangle myself from Mary.

"Wops! Too late, I already did!" He informed me with a smug smile.

"I'm gonna kill you both!"

"Oh, c'mon you look awesome!" He snickered.

I gave him a death glare before finally managing to push back my sister who just stood there panting.

"Why do you always have to be so difficult… I just wanted a hug!" She said with a fake pout.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Asked Gabriel after a few second of silence.

"I was just making sure that everything was going smoothly, you know" I answered, giving him a meaningful look.

"Oh, right! I had almost forgotten about the plot!" He said shifting his gaze around to make sure we were alone.

"So, how did it go?" Asked Mary.

"Actually… I'm not sure. Guess I'll just have to watch the news. It's not like I can do anything about it anyway, if I'm not mistaken the race is supposed to start today, probably in a few hours, and considering that I'm temporary grounded… Well, we'll just have to wait and see"

"Grounded?" Asked Gabriel giving me a puzzled look.

"What have you done?" Mary asked.

"Heh, I kind of took part to a dogfight… With no weapons" I answered shifting my gaze from them to the night sky.

"So grounded means you cannot fly!" Concluded Mary.

"Exactly" I confirmed.

"Yeah, we already heard from a nurse that you had your ass handed to you" Said the Dodge.

"Hey, slow down a minute! for your information the guy who shot me got to have a good swim into the sea and I, sure as hell, don't envy him" I told him with a scowl.

"Oh my God! You got shot?! Are you ok?" Asked Mary looking pretty worried.

"Yeah, Yeah, I'm fine. I'll just have to avoid using my right engine for a week or so. No big deal" Mary gave me an unconvinced look but didn't push further.

Instead she started to drive around me trying to take a good look from every angle.

"You're not fancy and elegant like Dave but you're cooler than the small plane you flew before" She informed me.

"You cannot just compare a business jet, a fighter jet and a general aviation plane Mary" I sighed.

"Hmmm… Whatever… Dave is the coolest" She stated stubbornly.

"Shit!" Exclaimed Gabriel interrupting our conversation.

"What is it?" Both me and Mary asked almost at the same time.

"Rod is calling me" Said Gabriel.

"So?" I asked while my sister froze in fear.

"We've been out for hours!" She whined.

"We're fucked, we were supposed to wait in that room. Rod's not gonna be happy!" Said Gabriel.

"Wait! We're with Chris now! We aren't his responsibility anymore" Said Mary giving me a hopeful look.

"Umm, I'm not exactly supposed to be out here either… Now that I think about it I probably should be heading back to the hangar before Ronald comes back and realises that I'm missing" I admitted.

"Oh, shit. So we really are fucked! Maybe if we head back now and pretend we've been out for just a couple of minutes we won't be that screwed" Tried Gabriel without looking too sure.

"I've got a better idea!" Jumped up Mary.

Gabriel just gave her a doubtful look.

"We'll just have to go back with Chris at her hangar and then tell Rod that she contacted us and told us to go there! And no one will be in trouble!" She said happily.

"That may actually work" I told her gaining another happy look.

"Fine, let's do this!" Said Gabriel looking at me expectantly.

"This way" I told them both starting to lead them back to my hangar.

Unfortunately Mary's plan had a major flaw that revealed itself in the shape of one blue muscle car plus two forklifts who were parked right in front of my hangar, looking at us expectantly.


End file.
